Restaurant business

[r32]

Thanks for the help!

No problem. Maybe you can treat me free dinners when you open your restaurant.

We can arrange something!

[jelle]

So you want to rent a place in helsinki for your restaurant?
I am a bit versed in this area since i have been looking for a place myself.
ok, first of all, you are not going to find a place that is for rent and at the same time suitable for having a restaurant? Why not, you think, well i have been looking actively through all the usual channels (toimitilat.fi etc), spoken with several real estate agents and have found in two years time exactly two times a place that was possible to take over as a restaurant. But not too rent, but to actually buy the place.
That leaves you with two options: 1) rent a place that is of normal housing purposes and transform it in a restaurant or 2) take over an existing restaurant.
For option one you have to first get the permission of the landlord of this change in purpose of the place (on top of that, usually the talonyhtiö has to agree as well). Once that's out of the way you will have to invent in aircondition /airventilation. Since the law changed about this this year, you might want to calculate a minimum of 30000 euros for that alone, (the new legally approved airventilation machines cost 20000 for the cheaper versions and then on top 10000 installation). You still want to go through? Try designing your restaurant, installing a kitchen, all the equipment,... before you know it your budget is over 100.000. But at least your rent will be cheaper then if you go for option 2.
2) taking over an existing restaurant is easy, pay a huge amount of money but at least all the permits are in order, the kitchen is according to law and health inspection (your new best friend) approved. You just decorate the place, hire a cook and staff and start drawing up a menu. Now, a "huge amount of money", how much is that exactly? There are actually companies that are specialised in the trading of existing restaurants to new owners. The name now slips my mind but some googling will help you there. To give you an idea of the sums we are talking here: i saw a small pizza place for sale near Hakaniemi tori, small as in 40 square meter and "near Hakaniemitori" meaning one of the streets coming to the square (not siltasaarenkatu though) and the overtakeprice was 250000 euros. Remember, on top of that you will still have to pay about 3000 euros of rent per month.


it's good you have 30000 euros and a nice idea about your restaurant so let's hope it will happen

[aspiala]

I'd say that if you're a small place that pays attention to the quality of your food and service, and what you serve is not what every other place serves, (ie the same buns and fillings from Heinon Tukku that every other place has) you stand a chance. Add a coziness factor that allows both students/workmen and businessmen to feel comfortable there, and you'll be further ahead. Dong Bei Hu is a chinese restaurant in a pretty bad location and I was sure they'd go under like many had in that same place before, however their food is so much better than 99% of the other Helsinki chinese restaurants that they've not only survived but seem to be thriving. Also they pay attention to customers, haven't grown relaxed/grumpy/dismissive, like the staff of other small places who may spend most of their time chatting in the restaurant with their buddies instead of serving customers. Cafe Trocadero (which does have a better location) is another example of this, and Cafe Gran Delicato started out this way, and is still not compromising on quality even now. For some reason there are very few small reasonably-priced relaxed places that serve really good food in town, but those that do exist seem to make it. (totally customer point of view, have been watching restaurants appear and disappear for years) It's the more fancy/bland/nondescript places that tend to go under faster.

That being said, watch out for the health inspector/health regulations, which can be draconian and apparently slightly corrupt, with some rules strictly enforced in some places and allowed to slide in others.

[aspiala]

I was thinking about simple food, nothing extremly fancy because people won't pay 40 euros for 1 dish. My inspiration comes from one restaurant from my home city which is preparing manly italian food. It's one of the most popular restaurant in my city and their succes keeps growing every year. They started with a very small place, which was selling good pizzas and now they have a very big restaurant. I am not dreaming so far, I wouldn't want a big restaurant because big places might scare the finns. When it comes to food and restaurants, a small and cozy place gets much more attention then one huge place. In the same time you can transform a small place in a very confortable location,to be while you are eating.

You know, if you could open a pizza place that served REAL Italian pizza instead of the slop you get most places, and created a happy cozy warm environment with friendly service, you may have a good chance. But the pizza has got to be good, no compromises on the quality of the toppings, NO MUSHROOMS FROM A CAN!

[jeenot]

Hai what kind of restaurant you would like to have .I was working as kook before as well.

[TampereOwl]

I would like to eat in a decent vegetarian restaurant. I went to Zuchini in helsinki the other week, it was weird - sprouts in kerma villi? what the @#$%? And the main course was just odd, a 'speghetti bake' that was dry and unpleasant. Veganissimo in Tampere serves those soya 'steaks' that have the texture of rubber and taste like plastic. Haven't been to the vegan place in Kallio, but i expect it to cleave to the 'vegetarians want to lose weight' school of thought. Gopal in Tammela is great, but that's Indian so it'd be difficult to mess it up.

I'm not a rabbit, I don't want fake meat, and I will pay reasonable money for well cooked vegetarian food at lunchtime. Surely someone can do that?

[aspiala]

Silvoplee has gotten good reviews, as has Vegemesta. Both are in Kallio.

[TampereOwl]

Silvoplee is where I've been told to go, but I'm not convinced it'll be any good. It's vegan isn't it? And the menu looks to be tofu and meat substitute-heavy. Don't like that stuff, it's weird and wrong, you just need to make nice food that happens not to have meat in it.

Vegemesta looks interesting - I'm not a fan of fake meat for a sit down meal, but burgers are one area where the meat content at hesburger and the like probably isn't too high.

One point about reviewers, though: they tend not to be vegetarian, and therefore be judging in a bit of a vacuum. They also like to encourage 'variety' so don't give bad reviews to places dominated by hippy scum.

[jelle]

Silvooplee is not focused on tofu or meat replacing products but more towards raw food. They sprout themselves all sorts of vegetable, they have an excellent salad table therefore but warm lunches as well. The deal is also that you can put as much food as you want on your plate and pay per weight. So leave out the potatoes... but a pricy for normal students. that said, definitely worth checking out

[sinikala]

Silvoplee is where I've been told to go, but I'm not convinced it'll be any good. It's vegan isn't it? And the menu looks to be tofu and meat substitute-heavy. Don't like that stuff, it's weird and wrong, you just need to make nice food that happens not to have meat in it.

Vegemesta looks interesting - I'm not a fan of fake meat for a sit down meal, but burgers are one area where the meat content at hesburger and the like probably isn't too high.

One point about reviewers, though: they tend not to be vegetarian, and therefore be judging in a bit of a vacuum. They also like to encourage 'variety' so don't give bad reviews to places dominated by hippy scum.

drugs are bad because if you do drugs you’re a hippie, and hippies suck!

I've been vegetarian for ummm ... 13 years... I've only eaten in a vegetarian restaurant once, it was in Manchester, about a year before I stopped eating meat. Can't remember the name of the place, but it was frequented by South African peace crisp eating hippy types and the food was cack.... come to think about it it may even have been a vegan restaurant.

[TampereOwl]

Silvooplee is not focused on tofu or meat replacing products but more towards raw food. They sprout themselves all sorts of vegetable, they have an excellent salad table therefore but warm lunches as well. The deal is also that you can put as much food as you want on your plate and pay per weight. So leave out the potatoes... but a pricy for normal students. that said, definitely worth checking out

See my 'not a rabbit' and 'hippy scum' comments. I'll give it a try, but I'm extremely sceptical - the menu has soya and potato casserole and two days of tofu. Maybe they do it well, but your previous comment doesn't inspire confidence.

[soyyo]

I have eaten at Silvoplee once and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Most of the food is vegan. I don't remember seeing any fake meats at all, and I don't even recall there being any tofu that day, for that matter.

It was a Saturday and it didn't seem to have any hippyish people either. It might be worth a try.

[Hank W.]

but it was frequented by South African peace crisp eating hippy types and the food was cack.

Knowing the culture of braai and rijstafel no wonder the hippies emigrated

[TampereOwl]

I feel obliged to comment here, as I bought a packet of soya mince the other day. I made moussaka with it, and it was actually really, really nice.

[soyyo]

I use that soya mince once or twice a week. It's not bad at all, and my son didn't realize it wasn't the real thing for about 2 months, and only then because he realized I would not be eating it if it were actually meat. I make spaghetti bolognese and taco "meat" with it, mainly. Those are two of my son's favorites, and I'm not sure I ever would have tried the stuff if it weren't for needing to find something that he would enjoy that was vegetarian.